Meet Sophie Beckett, Bridgerton’s most elusive leading lady

Bridgerton has finally found its next leading lady. As exclusively reported by Variety on August 16th, Korean-Australian actress Yerin Ha is set to play the role of Sophie Beckett, a nobleman’s bastard-turned-servant, in the eventual fourth season of Shondaland and Netflix’s regency romance show. Ha will be starring opposite Luke Thompson, who portrays Benedict Bridgerton, the second-born Bridgerton son in a family of eight children. Bridgerton is based on the historical romance book series by Julia Quinn, and Benedict and Sophie’s love story is captured in the third book, An Offer from a Gentleman.

The recent casting of Ha as Sophie provides an answer to one of the Bridgerton fandom’s longest-awaited, most hotly anticipated questions. Those familiar with the book series will know that Benedict and Sophie (referred to as “Benophie”) would have been the leads of Season 3 of Bridgerton if the show had elected to adhere to Quinn’s book order (the actual leads of Season 3, Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington, takes center stage in Quinn’s fourth novel in the series, Romancing Mister Bridgerton). When the order shakeup was announced all the way back in 2022, on May 16th, reality sunk in for Benophie fans worldwide – it was going to be an even longer wait before we’d ever get to meet our “Lady in Silver”, as Sophie is referred to in the book. (The “What A Barb!” podcast even developed a hilarious – and absurdly catchy – jingle to inquire about Sophie’s whereabouts.)

It also hasn't escaped fans’ notice that, by the end of Season 3, all of the endgame love interests for the adult Bridgerton siblings – Daphne (Simon Basset), Anthony (Kate Sharma), Colin (Penelope Featherington), Eloise (Phillip Crane), and Francesca (Michaela Stirling) – have officially been cast and made an appearance on the show in some capacity…

…except for Benedict.

Over the years, thanks to a number of factors, Sophie has become the single most elusive character in the entire show. She is, of course, yet to appear on screen, but the mystery surrounding Benedict’s endgame love interest goes far deeper than that.

In the 24 episodes of Bridgerton thus far, the name “Sophie” has never once been uttered. Her step-family (consisting of her stepmother, Araminta, and her step-sisters, Rosamund and Posy) has also not yet appeared on the show, nor have we even so much as glimpsed the countryside cottage, amusingly named “My Cottage”, which serves as a key setting in “An Offer from a Gentleman” (conversely, Romney Hall, the home of Phillip Crane, was seen back in Season 2 Episode 4). And, up until the final moments of the final episode of Season 3, there hadn’t ever even been a single mention of the pivotal masquerade ball where Benedict and Sophie meet and experience a “love at first sight” connection (many a Benophie fan – myself included – cheered when Eloise said the word “masquerade” when assuring Benedict that she would be back from Scotland the following year in time for their mother’s masquerade ball).

Outside of the show’s own narrative, there has also been the rather... curious pattern of Sophie’s existence seemingly failing to be acknowledged by anyone involved in the production of Bridgerton. Benedict having an endgame at all was rarely spoken about (an odd choice for a show based on a romance series, but I digress), and even when it was, phrases like “his person” or “his one and only” were used in place of simply saying “Sophie”.

I’ve been a member of this fandom long enough to remember when one of the only times Sophie was explicitly acknowledged came during the red carpet premiere for Season 2, when Kathryn Drysdale, who plays modiste Genevieve Delacroix, stated that her favorite Bridgerton couple was Benedict and Sophie. I cannot emphasize enough the degree to which we fans have been living off of minuscule crumbs like this over the last few years.

The secrecy surrounding Sophie became so blatant that a running joke developed amongst Benophie fans during the press tour for Season 3. Sophie was deemed the “Voldemort” of Bridgerton, as fans drew comparisons to her and the main antagonist of the Harry Potter franchise, given that Sophie was apparently also “[she] who must not be named”.

When it was finally confirmed on July 23rd that Season 4 would turn its focus to Benedict and his upcoming love story, as announced via a video released on the Bridgerton social media channels, there was still no actual mention of Sophie. A minor victory did come with the inclusion of the phrase “Lady in Silver” in the Shondaland article that accompanied the Season 4 announcement video, but the failure to confirm Sophie's identity in this article meant that fans would have to continue to endure baseless speculation that the show was going to ultimately choose to erase Sophie – who, it should be noted, is Bridgerton’s only working class woman in a leading role – from the story entirely.

In the time since Season 3 Part 2 aired on June 13th, outlandish theories for Benedict’s love interest have ranged from Sophie being a gender-swapped “Sophus” (completely invalidating a central conflict in her story, which is that she refuses to become romantically entangled with Benedict for fear of repeating her mother's mistakes and birthing a bastard child of her own), to Benedict actually just ending up with misunderstood mean girl Cressida Cowper (who is a member of the ton, not the working class, thus erasing yet another key element of Sophie's backstory).

So yes, while it was certainly exciting to read "Lady in Silver" in an official Shondaland article, it was simply not sufficient in light of the show's longstanding history of denying Sophie her rightful place in this universe.

Even now, with filming for Season 4 set to begin in the UK in mere weeks from now in mid-September, Bridgerton has continued its habit of inexplicably keeping Sophie hidden from the world (despite this being a romance show and not a mystery series). At the time of writing this article, Ha’s casting as Sophie has still not been publicly endorsed by Netflix or Shondaland. When reached out to by the reporter from Variety, reps for Netflix and Shondaland declined to comment on the casting news.

As well, in the time since the Season 4 announcement video was shared a month ago, the Bridgerton social media channels have only posted twice (in both instances, it was merely to share a video compilation of outtakes from the Season 3 press tour, despite the finale airing over two months ago), and the most recent post from just earlier this week made zero acknowledgement of the show’s newest leading lady, even though the news is already out in the world. Without yet being publicly permitted to speak about the biggest role in her career to date, Ha’s Instagram account has already quadrupled in followers since she was named in the Variety article on August 16th. (One of those new followers, notably, is Bridgerton executive producer and upcoming director of the first two episodes of Season 4, Tom Verica.)

There is perhaps a greater discussion to be had about this long-term pattern of omitting Sophie (and now also Ha, who will be Bridgerton's third POC in a leading role, and the second WOC) from conversations surrounding this show, but rather than spend my time becoming increasingly frustrated with and perplexed by the actions of a massive television production company, I’d prefer to instead focus on the positive aspects of this situation.

For one, Sophie has finally been cast, and Yerin Ha is about to become a household name, which in and of itself is very exciting for the talented young actress. And secondly, despite the show’s apparent attempts to avoid talking about her, I do believe there are already three prominent instances in the first three seasons of Bridgerton where Sophie’s presence has been felt, and I’d like to devote the rest of this article to highlighting each of them.

The first example I have is a conversation between Benedict and artist Henry Granville in Season 1 Episode 7. Granville, who is in love with a man named Lord Wetherby but is married to his wife, Lucy, rightfully calls out Benedict for casting judgment on and failing to comprehend the intricacies of his situation. “What about honor? Romance?” Benedict asks him, upon learning that Granville’s lover is still being courted by ladies in the ton. Granville promptly fires back with: “What would you know of either? We live under constant threat of danger, Bridgerton. I risk my life every day for love. You have no idea what it is like to be in a room with someone you cannot live without, and yet still feel as though you are oceans apart… We cannot so much as smile at each other without first ensuring no one else is watching.” He departs the conversation shortly thereafter, but not before absolutely reading Benedict for filth in that moment – as he deserves. “It takes courage to live outside the traditional expectations of society,” Granville points out. “You talk of doing the same… but perhaps it is merely just that – all talk.”

The reason I view this scene as the first major example of Sophie’s presence being felt in the show is because, as book readers know, and as I’ve already stated earlier in this article, Sophie is not a member of the aristocracy like the Bridgertons are. She’s a working class woman, and more than that, she’s illegitimate. As per the rules of society in the Regency era, someone like Benedict would not be able to marry someone like Sophie without incurring horrible ostracism from everyone around him. It’s incredibly important to Benedict’s overall journey that he has this exchange with Granville, because there will come a time – upon meeting and starting to fall for Sophie – where he’ll find himself in a very similar position to Granville and Wetherby, and he’ll have to decide if he’s going to continue to just be “all talk”, or if he’ll actually step up and be courageous in the name of true love.

The second time Sophie’s essence makes its way onto the show, without an accompanying actress playing her or her name being mentioned, is in Season 2 Episode 2. Anthony is hoping to impress Edwina Sharma at Lady Danbury’s talent show/soiree taking place that evening, and so he solicits his most artistically-inclined brother to help him memorize a poem by Lord Byron. When Anthony refers to poetry as deceitful, Benedict is compelled to set him straight: “Deceitful? Poetry is the opposite, Brother. It is the art of revealing precious truth with words.” Anthony is disgusted when he realizes Benedict is being genuine, and is about to leave, when Benedict begins reciting an original poem of his own. (I’m just going to include the poem in its entirety here, because it’s such an exquisite moment that deserves all the love.)

“What is it, truly, to admire a woman? To look at her and feel inspiration? To delight in her beauty, so much so that all your defences crumble, that you would willingly take on any pain, any burden for her. To honor her being with your deeds and words. That is what the true poet describes.”

Ever since the very first time I watched this scene in Season 2, over two-and-a-half years ago now, I've known without a doubt that Benedict is talking about Sophie here – even if he doesn’t know it yet. What Benedict describes about a seemingly hypothetical scenario is exactly how he’ll end up falling for Sophie, which is incredibly beautiful to think about. I discuss it in more detail in an article I wrote last month, but I believe Benedict and Sophie to be an excellent example of the “soulmates” trope, and this moment with his poem, where Benedict captures the essence of what it’s like to fall in love, despite having never been in love himself, only further supports my theory that Benedict and Sophie have just been waiting for each other all this time.

The third and final instance in Bridgerton of Sophie’s presence being felt comes in Season 3 Episode 8. As I already elaborated on in my previous article about Benophie, when Benedict and Eloise are sitting on the swings in the Bridgerton garden, and Benedict tells his sister, “It feels right now that the next thing I might learn may change me entirely”, I can almost be convinced that Sophie herself is hiding in the bushes near the swings – that’s how close she feels in that moment. What I love about this line in particular is that it also functions very elegantly as the second of three key lines from the Season 3 finale that collectively foreshadow Benophie.

The first is a sentiment is expressed by Benedict to his Season 3 fling, Lady Tilley Arnold, during their breakup scene: “I am not certain that serious is what I want… You’ve opened my world. And I am not ready to close it again just now.” The second key line, of course, comes from Benedict musing about the change he expects to experience from whatever the next thing it is that he’ll learn. And finally, completing the trifecta, we have the acknowledgement of an upcoming masquerade ball. “I will be there, hiding out behind a mask, avoiding eligible ladies like the plague,” Benedict tells Eloise. With these three lines, Benedict’s path to Sophie is made clear: he doesn’t think he wants a serious relationship... but then he also acknowledges that he senses a change might be coming his way. And where might such a change take place, you ask? That’s right, you guessed it – at the masquerade ball.

While the casting of Yerin Ha as Sophie certainly brings us one step closer to this beloved character finally having her time in the sun on Bridgerton, even without a physical presence on the show thus far, I truly do believe that Sophie has been here all along, ready and waiting for the moment her life will change.

And I, for one, can’t wait to watch it happen.

All episodes of Bridgerton Seasons 1, 2, and 3 are currently streaming on Netflix.